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A Story of the Middle West ‘
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By
GEORGE RICHMOND GROSE

One of the Bishops of the Methodist
Episcopal Church

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THE ABINGDON PRESS
CINCINNATI

NEW YORK

Copyright, 1928, by
GEORGE RICHMOND GROSE

All rights reserved, including that of translation into
foreign languages, including the Scandinavian

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATED
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CHAPTER

VII.

CONTENTS

PAGE
ENTRODUCTION, .. oi. once cee nccese il
PORMWORD =): Gilt oy one ee bes eas 13
An Inprana Home................. = AB
Scooot Days AND AFTER............ 21
A Sroupent or Law................. 30
A Master at THE Bak.............. 36
Tue Measure oF THE MaAv......... 53
His Home Anp FRIENDS............. 64
His INVESTMENTS IN HuMANITY...... 71

ILLUSTRATIONS

Epwarp_ RecrTor.................... Frontispiece
z FACING PAGE
Rector Home 1n Beprorp, INDIANA........ 16
BAR ACAEECTON or once Pgs Se ve sda te AS
Epwarp Recror At TWENTY-ONE........... 31
Epwarp REcTor...............- SN arate em 53
Mrs. Epwarp REcTOR.................-+-. 64
PRR OUCIS TAU ee | hee folks eekbuy dip ete iuie oe 81

Henry B. Lonapren HALL.................. 93

INTRODUCTION

To leave unwritten the biography of such
a man as Edward Rector would be depriv-
ing the world of the knowledge and acquaint-
ance of a most beautiful and heroic soul.

To allow his memory to fade or grow dim
in the minds of men would be permitting
them to lose one of their most priceless pos-
sessions. To keep from the knowledge of
the oncoming youth, to whose interests he
dedicated his life, the inspiration of his noble
living would be proving recreant to a most
obvious duty and obligation. Therefore,
when he left us our first thought was, “Here
is a life whose history must be preserved.”

Would that it were possible to add to the
accurate and inspiring picture that Bishop
Grose has given in words, an impressionistic
picture in colors of the beauty and attractive-
ness of his face! Life was so good and
beautiful to him that it beamed from his very
face and became manifest in every act. He,
almost more than anyone whom I have
known, had that rare and peculiar gift of
making goodness desirable and attractive to

11

12 EDWARD RECTOR

the young. The things that are honest and
just and pure when embodied in him became
truly “lovely and of good report.”

Mother Nature in bestowing her gifts on
him was most kind, almost profligate. She
held out both hands to him, in one of which
there was a brilliant mind and in the other
an unusual capacity for friendship; and,
instead of asking him to choose, she gave him
both—a mind so clear, so strong, so penetrat-
ing, so accurate that it at once recognized the
truth as by intuition and saw through all pre-
tense and falsity, and a personality that
irresistibly drew all men to him.

The preparation of this book has been
entirely a labor of love. No one has laid
hands on it except in this spirit, and we all,
Mr. Rector’s friends, are under lasting obli-
gations to the author. It is the spontaneous
reaction of Mr. Rector’s unselfish spirit and
for that reason, added to the intrinsic merit
of the work, it deserves to be read and
studied. |

Henry B. Lonepen,

Vice-President, DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana,
February 29, 1928,

FOREWORD

THE purpose of this little book is to tell
the story of Edward Rector and his invest-
ment. It is a romance of American oppor-
tunity. It is a chapter out of the annals of
the Middle West illustrating the genius and
the nobility of professional success and busi-
ness achievement at their best. The early life
of Edward Rector presents a fascinating
picture of the American home in the last half
of the nineteenth century. The story of his
struggles for an education, of his rise to dis-
tinction as a lawyer, and his illustrious career
guided and transfused at every step by a
lofty purpose belongs to all aspiring youth.
The investment of his great fortune and the
dedication of the last ten years of his life to
educational philanthropy give his name an
honorable place among American philan-
thropists. His munificent gifts to higher
education marked a new epoch in the history
of one of the oldest colleges of the Middle
West. DePauw University will always hold
the name of Rector in sacred remembrance.

13

14 EDWARD RECTOR

But the compelling reason for this bio-
graphical study is the personality and char-
acter of Edward Rector. His was a radiant
nature, a luminous soul, with clear mind,
high purpose, and imperial will, clothed
always with simplicity and modesty, whose
portrait must be preserved. I am writing
this story because it must be told. If I can
present the simple record of his life and so
interpret his character that his immortality
becomes a bit more real to those who knew
and loved him, and if I can make him stand
forth in the imagination of the coming gen-
erations of college youth, blessed by his bene-
factions, the strong, winsome, noble, inspiring
friend, with whom, though unseen, I walk
daily, my purpose will be fulfilled.

This little volume is written at the request
of the Edward Rector Scholarship Founda-
tion of DePauw University and with the
approval of Mrs. Lucy Rowland Rector,
who shared and inspired the services of her
devoted husband.

G.R. G. ©

CHAPTER I
AN INDIANA HOME

Epwarpb Rector was a son of the Middle
West. He was born in Bedford, Indiana,
July 7, 1863. His grandfather, Jesse Rec-
tor, had migrated from his native State,
Virginia, when Isaac Rector, the father of
Edward, was only five years old, and settled
in southern Indiana. The grandfather en-
listed in Washington’s army and _ partici-
pated in the siege of Yorktown. Edward’s
father belonged to the pioneer period of the
Middle West when the country was wild and
wooded, when privations and _ hardships
toughened the fiber of men’s souls. Edward’s
boyhood days were enlivened by his grand-
father’s stories of Revolutionary times and
by his father’s tales of Indians and wild game
which abounded in the uncleared country.

The early life of Edward Rector belongs
to the transition period between the pioneer’s
settlement and clearing of a new country and
the era of great agricultural and industrial

15

16 EDWARD RECTOR

development. His childhood home was
typical of the good homes of the Middle
West sixty years ago. The houses were all
built on the same architectural lines: Two
stories, with a hall from the front straight
through the center, on one side of which was
a living room and bedroom, and on the other
side a parlor and dining room with a kitchen
and porch in the rear; the parlor always
dark with its closed wooden shutters. Its
furniture upholstered with black hair-cloth,
with a conventional marble-topped table in
the center, on which reposed the family Bible
and the family album, and a “what-not” in
the corner. The room was a solemn place in
the minds of children, as it was associated
with “quiet Sundays,” stiff parties, and
funerals. The Rector homestead was a place
of modest comfort and of genteel refinement.
It was embellished by a wealth of flowers
and shrubbery which Isaac Rector tended
with his own hands. The garden with its
profusion of vegetables and the grove of
maple trees near by with its yearly yield of
maple syrup complete the picture of the
early “Rector Place.”

This beautiful home made a lasting im-

VNVICNI ‘“CuUOddad NI ANOH YOLOAY

AN INDIANA HOME 17

pression upon the mind of Edward. He
inherited from his father a love of nature and
fondness for flowers and trees which found
expression in the grounds of his own home
and of Rector Hall.

At the age of twenty-five Isaac Rector
was married to Juliet B. Gardiner of Colum-
bus, Ohio. The Gardiner family was of
English descent. Seven children, five sons
and two daughters, were born to Isaac Rec-
tor and Juliet Gardiner, of whom Edward
was the youngest. The oldest son, James,
enlisted in the army and died of typhoid
fever in 1861; another son named Albert died
in the same year. The other two sons, Jesse
Winford and Charles Poole, were several
years older than Edward and left home when
he was a young child. The younger of the
two brothers, Charles, entered the army as
an expert telegraph operator. The other
brother went to Kansas where he became a
lawyer and later a farmer. ‘The younger of
the two sisters, Harriet, died in 1874 shortly
after graduating from high school. The
other sister, Mary, lived with her father in
Washington, D. C., until his death in 1899.
She spent the remainder of her life in Wash-

18 EDWARD RECTOR

ington, devoting all her time with great
enthusiasm to religious and charitable work.
Rarely endowed with keenness of mind,
womanly grace, and iron will, the kinship
between her and her brother Edward was
supernaturally close. The mother died when
Edward was sixteen years of age.

Many of the noble lineaments in the char-
acter of Edward were presaged in the life of
his father Isaac Rector. Born in Virginia,
he grew to young manhood on a farm in
southern Indiana. After a few years of
employment in a drygoods store he entered
the State Bank and for a period of twenty
years or more engaged in the banking busi- —
ness. He was prosperous and reputed to be
the wealthiest man in the county. But
shortly after the close of the Civil War he
failed in business, and in order to meet his
obligations surrendered all his property. He
gave up the beautiful house in which Edward
was born with everything in it and moved his
family into a small rented house near by.
Edward Rector’s childhood recollections of
the stalwart integrity and heroic fortitude
of his father in this time of adversity entered
like iron into his soul.

ISAAC RECTOR

AN INDIANA HOME 19

In a reminiscent sketch of his childhood
and youth written a short time before his
death Mr. Rector gives us an illuminating
picture of his boyhood home. The intimate
contacts with neighbors, sharing with one
another work, games, table delicacies, and
the burdens of sickness and misfortune,
developed his passion for friends. The ardor
and tenacity of the friendships of his later
life began to appear in the wholesome asso-
ciations of his Bedford home. The simple
joys of country life were cherished recollec-
tions. The Fourth-of-July | celebrations
attended by great crowds to listen to a “‘spell-
binder,” with the added attraction of candy,
peanut, and lemonade stands; the visits to
the country home of uncles and aunts, whose
table was always loaded with the best; travel
on horseback, by stagecoach and river-boat;
the annual scourges of malaria with its
accompanying specific, bottles of quinine;
the neighborly exchanges of work and of
household supplies, featured country life in
Indiana sixty years ago. Its simplicity was
its charm.

One of the most revealing glimpses of his
childhood home is the lad at work. Whether

20 EDWARD RECTOR

by dint of family circumstances or by paren-
tal training he early acquired the habit of
diligent work. In his autobiographical notes
he dwells with evident satisfaction upon his
first experiences in earning money. He
picked berries in the season, “bugged”
potatoes, repaired cane-bottomed chairs,
sawed wood, clerked in a drug store, worked
in a printing office, copied manuscript, and
kept books. He worked at every job with
real zest. His energy and enthusiasm in
work, his thrift and enterprise in business so
notable in his later career were foreshadowed
in Mr. Rector’s boyhood.

Little wonder that he cherished the mem-
ories of the Bedford home with sacred
delight. The business integrity of his father,
the self-sacrificing devotion of his mother
and sister Mary, the reverence for educa-
tion and religion, the atmosphere of good
cheer and refinement made fertile soil for
growing a noble soul. The knightly qualities
which flowered in his manhood were planted
in the garden of his early home. Rector Hall,
his first munificent gift to higher education,
stands as Edward Rector’s reverent tribute
to his father and to his childhood home.

CHAPTER II
~ SCHOOL DAYS AND AFTER

TuHE education of Edward Rector began
with his father and grandfather. The first
school he attended was a private school in a
loghouse taught by his sister Mary. The
first high school organized in Bedford,
Indiana, was in the year 1871. There were
then but few high schools in the State. There
is no more romantic chapter in the develop-
ment of the Middle West than the story of
the growth of the public-school system: sixty
years ago not a high school in the common-
wealth of Indiana that would meet present-
day standards. Now more than six hundred
high schools with curricula equal to the col-
lege curricula of fifty years ago. The new
two-story school building, with four rooms
on each floor, Mr. Rector describes as the
pride of the town. He entered high school
at the age of eleven and graduated at four-
teen. He pays discriminating and affection-
ate tribute to James H. Madden and to Miss

21

22 EDWARD RECTOR

Frances Simpson, his teachers, both of whom
had been trained in Professor Holbrook’s
Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio. His
admiration for the robust, forceful character
of Miss Simpson, whose penmanship was
also striking, led young Rector to imitate
her bold, freehand writing.

One of his classmates at a reunion of his
high school class humorously describes
Edward Rector in vivid, if not poetic lines:

“To the foot of the stage stepped a tiny tot,
Not five feet tall, and with very white hair;
A childish young person, he stood waiting

there

With innocence written on every feature—
°Tis hard to imagine a more youthful

creature.
Many smiles here and there one began to

Spy;
For some thought he’d escaped a watchful
eye
And wandered out on the edge of the stage,
Where he stood unabashed and unafraid.
But soon the boy ended all the suspense
When he thundered forth, ‘On the Fence?’.
Then they say twas the Prodigy, nothing
worse,
Who at fourteen finished the high school
course.

SCHOOL DAYS AND AFTER 23

In Edward Rector, the toastmaster to-
night,

You may all see that one-time Prodigy
bright.”

In the plea of this: high-school youth for
courage in decision and in his mental inten-
sity there are prefigured the intellectual and
moral qualities which led him to professional
eminence.

Rector’s high-school associations reveal
his early bent for friendship. He made fre-
quent journeys to Bedford for the reunions
of his graduating class. Arista B. Williams,
an attorney of Chicago, and Professor
Frank M. Stalker, for many years a teacher
in the Indiana State Normal School, Terre
Haute, Indiana, and other members of his
graduating class, were in a preferred list of
friends. I have never known a man with so
wide a circle of acquaintances covering a
period of three score years whose early and
later friendships alike were cherished with
such genuine personal interest and_ loyal
devotion. From his youth to his dying hour
his whole nature was pouring forth the finest
friendship and the richest human sentiment.

His graduation from high school ended

24 EDWARD RECTOR

young Rector’s school days until he entered
the law school of Cincinnati five years later.
Lack of means prevented his entering col-
lege with six other members of his class in the
fall of 1874. He never ceased to regret that
he was deprived of college training. When
he made his first substantial gift to aid poor
students in college he said to the writer, “I
must do something to help earnest young
men get a college education which was
denied me forty years ago.” His passion
for knowledge burning when he was in the
earlier teens was the perpetual urge in his
high professional attainments and in his
great educational enterprise. In the en-
kindled mind of this disappointed youth wav-
ing farewell to his classmates departing for
college there was born the deepest impulse
of his later life—to give not benevolence to
the poor, but opportunity to the aspiring.
Following his graduation from high school
young Rector found employment in a drug
store. After the failure of his employer he
went into a printing office at one dollar and -
fifty cents per week. He told with pardon-
able pride of his first substantial earning.
He copied the manuscript of an intended

SCHOOL DAYS AND AFTER 25

book of one thousand six hundred pages for
which he received fifty dollars, with a bonus
of ten dollars for the excellence of his work.
The money was immediately deposited in the
bank. Years afterward he wrote, “I well
remember the intense interest with which I
watched my deposit entered in the little pass
book, which I still have somewhere among
my treasured possessions.” And then he
adds playfully, “This piece of work laid the
foundation of my future fortune; as I have
never since had less than sixty dollars.” The
habit of hard work, thrift, and frugality
formed in early youth fashioned his whole
business career. He passed from one posi-
tion to another, increasingly responsible and
remunerative until he reached a clerkship in
the courthouse. For two years he was
employed in the county recorder’s office and
in the office of the county auditor. At the
same time he kept books in the evenings to
increase his income.

During this period of varied employment
young Rector was trying to find himself.
His boyish fancy at one time pictured his
becoming a printer, at another time a shoe-
maker. The village shoemaker’s shop which

26 EDWARD RECTOR

afforded steady employment was a popular
community center. The jolly proprietors
with an inexhaustible fund of humorous
stories Edward observed had a dependable
livelihood. At one time he seriously thought
of learning the trade and making it his life-
work. In later years he wrote with droll
irony, “I have sometimes wondered if the
world had not lost a first-class shoemaker in
return for a second-class lawyer.”

There were strong currents of uncon-
scious influence which turned young Rector
toward the law as a profession. Moses F.
Dunn, whose book manuscript he copied,
was a brilliant and accomplished lawyer of
rare charm of manner in personal intercourse
and an eloquent public speaker. His uncle,
Richard W. Thompson, was a lawyer of dis-
tinction and of high standing as a citizen of
Indiana and secretary of the navy in Presi-
dent Hayes’ cabinet. Another uncle, A. M.
Stem, a successful merchant of Cincinnati,
was greatly admired by Edward Rector and
helped to set him the more firmly in his own.
ideals and convictions. He writes: “Of rather
stern yet genial disposition, a man of utmost
sincerity and frankness and rugged unswerv-

SCHOOL DAYS AND AFTER 27

ing integrity of thought and action, I have
always revered his memory.” ‘The contacts
of these enkindling personalities started the
latent fires of his own ambition to make for
himself a worthy place.

After trying out his youthful powers in
varied forms of employment for five years a
guiding hand was laid upon him. Judge
William H. Martin, an able lawyer, “wedded
to his profession,” saw in Edward Rector a
youth of promise. He persuaded his young
friend to begin the study of law. Fragments
of time picked up between office hours in the
courthouse were devoted to reading Walker’s
American Law. Little did young Rector’s
friendly mentor dream that he was setting
the feet of one on the professional highway
to a career that would eclipse his own and at
the same time open the door of educational
opportunity to an unending procession of
aspiring youth.

Another quality of this Indiana youth has
already appeared—his humanness. His
human interests were full-orbed—indus-
trious, enterprising, and earnest, but never
morbidly serious. Loafing on rainy Satur-
days at the shoeshop, playing “scrub,” the

28 EDWARD RECTOR

nearest substitute for baseball available,
hunting small game, angling in the country
streams, which yielded small fish and big
stories; close, friendly contacts with folks,
all sorts of folks—these were the diversions
with which Edward Rector passed his leisure.
His description of neighbor friends reveal
the deepest interest in people and keenest
insight into their character. His newspaper
friend with unlimited capacity for beer and
cheese, whose avoirdupois kept his feet firmly
on the ground; the capable and faithful
county official; his one-time employer, a red-
headed fiery tempered little dynamo with a
big heart and great energy; “Aunt Miran-
da,” the highly respected neighbor and
friend of the family; the well-known lawyer
of the town of commanding presence, in the
habit of mumbling to himself whether “wet”
or “dry”; James Whitcomb Riley’s fascinat-
ing public readings in the early days of his
career; the painfully pious churchman stern
and severe in business; another employer an
altogether admirable and lovable man—from:
these he was happily learning some of the
most valuable lessons of life.

During the summer of 1881, when he was

SCHOOL DAYS AND AFTER 29

eighteen years of age, Edward made his first
visit to Chicago. The city made upon him
a great impression. It was ten years after
the great fire. Large areas were still covered
with temporary buildings. No electric street
ears, no electric lights, telephones, or auto-
mobiles. But there were then half a million
alert, energetic people whose enterprise fas-
cinated young Rector. His interest in the
one thousand two hundred horse power Cor-
liss steam engine recently installed at the
then new plant of the Pullman Car Com-
pany was prophetic of his future profes-
sional specialty. He little thought as he ex-
plored the wonders of the great city with his
intimate friends, Robert C. Houston and
Albert B. Cole, that he would be playing a
prominent part in the professional and insti-
tutional activities of the great metropolis of
the West within a score of years. One can-
not trace the simple events in the early life
of Edward Rector without finding it easier
to believe that “Averyman’s life is a plan of
God,” and that

“There is a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.”

CHAPTER III
A STUDENT OF LAW

In 1882 Rector began the study of law in
earnest. Finding he could not make satis-
factory progress reading law and continuing
his work in the courthouse, he resigned his
position, much to the disgust of his friends.
Through his cousin, Arthur Stem, he
promptly secured a position in Cincinnati as
clerk in the law office of Stem & Peck, whose
practice was chiefly in patent law. His serv-
ices were so useful to the firm that he was
able thereby to meet the expenses of his legal
education in the Law School of the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati. Three years of com-
bined office work and law study tested the
limit of his physical strength. He followed
his rigid schedule of daily work with an iron
will—rising invariably at 6 a. M.; one hour’s
study; followed by breakfast; work in the
office, Law School lectures; gymnasium
exercise 5:30 to 6:30; study 7:30 to 10, when
he retired. In order to perform more satis-

30

EDWARD RECTOR

(At twenty-one)

A STUDENT OF LAW 31

factorily his double duties in the law firm
and in the university he took up the study of
shorthand. He pursued the course with such
intensity that in a few months he became
thoroughly proficient as a stenographer. In
the spring of 1885 he graduated with second
honors in a class of sixty-two. A few days
later he was admitted to the bar of Ohio
before the Supreme Court at Columbus.

He then expected to enter the general
practice of law. He was urged to continue
for the remainder of the year with the firm
of Stem & Peck.

Mr. Rector was no sooner admitted to the
bar than he threw himself with burning
energy into the study and practice of law.
Increasing responsibilities were given him by
the firm in which he was employed. These
early professional experiences revealed his
future promise. He recalled with keen
delight his first professional visit to Detroit,
a beautiful thriving city in the eighties, where
he found one of the earliest electric car lines
in America.

A later business trip to Goshen, Indiana,
was the beginning of his acquaintance with
John H. Baker, then a member of Congress,

32 EDWARD RECTOR

and later judge of the United States District
Court at Indianapolis. I recall a visit to
Judge Baker thirty years later, when he was
in advanced age and found him reading
Homer’s Iliad in the original and other
classics. It was on a trip to New Orleans in >
1885 that he met Philip H. Dyrenforth, a
prominent attorney of Chicago, who was on
the opposing side in the case which Rector
represented. The personal kindness and con-
sideration shown the young lawyer by a
veteran at the bar made a lasting impression
upon Mr. Rector and was the beginning of
a life-long friendship. He writes in his
journal, “I have always endeavored to fol-
low Mr. Dyrenforth’s example in my inter-
course with younger and less experienced
members of the bar’”—a quality in which he
excelled. A similar business trip to Cali-
fornia was the beginning of his intimate
friendship with Governor Samuel D. Fifield,
of Wisconsin. Mr. Rector records his first
court experience in Saint Louis, where he
had been sent to secure the dismissal of a suit
in the United States Court because of a con-
trolling decision rendered by another court.
When Rector presented the case, J udge

A STUDENT OF LAW 33

Treat, the presiding judge, ignored his pre-
vious promise to take up the matter at that
time and gruffly refused a hearing. The
young attorney was much confused and
chagrined, not knowing what to do. Shortly
afterward Judge Brewer, later a justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States,
withdrew from the bench and retired to his
chambers. He summoned Mr. Rector,
greeted him cordially, apologized for Judge
Treat’s action, and said he would take up the
matter and dispose of it. “While I often
saw Justice Brewer on the supreme bench in
Washington, I never met him personally
again or had another opportunity of thank-
ing him for his courtesy and kindness to me.
The two judges with whom I had my first
experience in court have always held very
different places in my memory.” So wrote
Edward Rector forty years after the inci-
dent. These experiences at the beginning
of his professional career reveal the soul of
a fine-grained, high-minded gentleman.

It was during this first period of his legal
practice after he and Mr. Peck had formed
a partnership that his work began with the
National Cash Register Company. This

34 EDWARD RECTOR

professional service soon brought him into
touch with Mr. William A. MacLeod and
Frederick P. Fish of Boston, both leaders at
the bar, with whom later Rector became fast
friends. About the same time he formed the
acquaintance of Mr. Henry B. Renwick, of
New York City, of whom Mr. Rector writes:
“He was then a man of about seventy years
of age and a giant physically and mentally.
He was a scientific expert in patent litiga-
tion. His brother was the architect of Saint
Patrick’s Cathedral and many of New
York’s noted buildings.” Rector continues:
“T think Mr. Renwick was the ablest man in
his profession whom I have ever met, and I
have always felt in after years that my asso-
ciation with him in those early days was of
very great benefit to me. One thing I
learned from him, or imagined I did, was
thoroughness and intellectual honesty or
integrity. He examined the case laid before
him with the utmost thoroughness, and if he
felt that the case was not a good one on the
side presented to him, he would not take it.”
Life-long associates of Edward Rector at
the bar have said that in these words he was
unwittingly describing himself.

A STUDENT OF LAW 35

Mr. Rector pays grateful tribute also to
Mr. Fish, whose great ability and stalwart
character profoundly impressed the young
lawyer and influenced him throughout his
life. Edward Rector’s personal reactions in
his early professional days to men of great
ability and distinction at the bar discover to
us the superior stuff in his make-up. It was
like answering to like, deep calling to deep.
“He walked with tall men comradewise.”

CHAPTER IV
A MASTER AT THE BAR

RectTor’s rise to prominence at the bar
was rapid but by no magic or accident. He
was persuaded shortly after his graduation
from law school to join with Mr. Peck in a
new firm, known as Peck & Rector. This
partnership, formed in 1886, continued until
1892, when Rector reluctantly withdrew to
take up his work in Chicago. During the
period of his practice in Cincinnati he laid
securely the foundation of his future emi-
nence. At the outset he little thought of
making patent law his specialty. “On the
contrary,” he said, “by the time I had
finished my course in the law school I felt
that I knew entirely too much law ever to
confine my activities to one narrow branch.
Rather, like Lord Bacon, I would take all
law, if not all knowledge, for my province!”
His early associations in the law office and
his own natural bent gradually opened up to
him the field in which he was to achieve dis-

36

A MASTER AT THE BAR = 37

tinction. His industry was untiring. His
alert intelligence, transparent sincerity, and
efficient service soon won not only the confi-
dence but the affection of his clients. With
consummate skill he was sketching the out-
lines of his future career.

Some of his early clients became prom-
inent in great industries in the country and
later placed Rector in general charge of their
patent litigation. Notable among the great
corporations which he served as counsel were _
the National Cash Register Company, the
Burroughs Adding Machine Company, the
Boyer Machine Co., Chicago Pneumatic
Tool Co., Firestone Tire and Rubber Co.,
Splitdorf Co., Todd Protectograph Co.,
Swift & Co., Toledo Scale Co., Detroit
Lubricator Co., National Automobile Cham-
ber of Commerce, General Motors Corpora-
tion, Packard Company, Studebaker Cor-
poration, General Electric Company,
Thompson-Houston Co., American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Co., Western Electric
Co., Tiemens-Halske Co., and Westing-
house Electric and Manufacturing Co. Some
of these clients put him in general charge of
their patent interests. In the litigation of

38 EDWARD RECTOR

these companies he was associated with the
most eminent lawyers in the profession,
among whom were Frederick P. Fish, R. H..
Parkinson, Charles C. Linthicum, Amos C.
Miller, and Drury W. Cooper. The litiga-
tion of these companies involved vast for-
tunes and affected in a far-reaching way the
industries of the country.

After six years of practice Rector had
firmly established himself with a good in-
come. However, he was not satisfied with
his future outlook in Cincinnati. The city
was conservative and making slow progress.
The volume of business in his specialty was
not large. On his frequent professional visits
to Chicago he felt the call of that energetic
and rapidly growing city. It was a bold
venture “to give up an assured income of
four or five thousand dollars a year and start
out alone in a strange city.” But after long
mental struggle the decision was made and
he burned the bridges behind him. His
senior partner, Mr. Peck, was reluctant to
have him leave but accepted his decision in
good faith and dealt with him with eee
kindness.

An interesting side-light upon the char-

A MASTER AT THE BAR _ 39

acter and business fidelity of Rector is seen
in the cordial relations which existed between
him and his employees and associates in
every position that he held. From his drug-
store clerkship as a lad until the end of his
career he had the good will and confidence
of his business associates in an unusual
degree.

In the spring of the year 1892 Edward
Rector moved to Chicago and opened his
office in the then new Chamber of Commerce
Building on La Salle and Washington
Streets. He playfully observes: “I have
never been superstitious, else I should hardly
have begun my venture in Chicago as I did,
on April Fool’s Day, which was also Friday,
and taken office No. 1314 on the 13th floor
of the building!”

From the beginning of his work in Chi-
cago fortune favored him. He retained
many of his former Cincinnati clients and his
business developed rapidly. After he had
built up an extensive practice and established
a wide reputation, he took into partnership
Samuel E. Hibben, the firm name becoming
Rector & Hibben. Later Frank Parker
Davis was added and the firm name became

40 EDWARD RECTOR

Rector, Hibben & Davis. ‘Then John B.
McCauley entered the firm, which became
Rector, Hibben, Davis & McCauley. These
partners continued their association with the
later addition of several junior partners
until Mr. Rector’s death in August, 1926.
By this large office staff he was looked upon
as the premier. But never with feelings of
jealousy. He held his place of leadership by
his rare ability, winsome personality, and
primacy of character.

Rector’s high professional standing is indi-
cated not alone by the magnitude of the busi-
ness interests which he represented in litiga-
tion during a period of thirty-five years;
he was a member of the bar of the United
States Supreme Court, most of the United
States Courts of Appeal, many United
States District Courts, the Supreme Court
of Illinois and subordinate courts; of the
American Bar Association, the Illinois Bar
Association, Chicago Bar Association, and
the Chicago Patent Law Association. He
held responsible positions in the directorates
of several of the great corporations of the
country. He was intimately associated
almost from the beginning with the develop-

A MASTER AT THE BAR 41

ment of the Burroughs Adding Machine
Company and other great industrial enter-
prises.

What was the appraisal of Edward Rec-
tor, lawyer, by the experts of his profession?

The Chicago Patent Law Association
shortly after his death made this significant
record concerning Mr. Rector’s professional
career:

“He was justly recognized and esteemed
by members of his profession throughout the
country, by clients, by numerous federal
courts before which he appeared, including
the Supreme Court of the United States, the
Circuit Courts of Appeal and District
Courts of most Federal Circuits, as an advo-
eate of superior learning, ability, and char-
acter, especially qualified to interpret and
to expound the intricacies of patent cases,
where the nature and boundaries of mar-
velous, complex, and mysterious inventions
now crowding upon our courts must be
ascertained and adjudicated. . . . By his
fine character, notable ability, and achieve-
ments he crowned his distinguished and spot-
less career in a manner worthy of the
supreme aspirations of a lawyer who had

42 EDWARD RECTOR

consecrated every achievement and acquisi-
tion to the service of mankind and the
advancement of the kingdom of the God he
worshiped.”

“When I met him as an opponent,” says
Robert H. Parkinson, “I knew that I had
at once an able, thoroughgoing, industrious,
and skillful antagonist, but that I could
always count on his extending every personal
courtesy possible without prejudice to his
cause, and upon his dealing honorably with
me in every respect. When I labored with
him as an associate I was much impressed
with the thoroughness of his preparation, his
devotion to his client’s cause, and abstinence
from unprofessional conduct or expedients.
All who knew him intimately marked him
very high among the leaders of his profession
throughout the country. It is rare for any
man in any profession to combine so many
admirable qualities or to perform so great
a service and set such a splendid example.”

Judge Albert B. Anderson, of the United
States District Court of Appeals, writes of
Mr. Rector: “I think I knew him and I
know I greatly admired him. He stood at
the head of the patent lawyers of the Middle

A MASTER AT THE BAR 43

West. He was an able man, a good man,
and an altogether wholesome person.”

Livingston Gifford makes the following
incisive comment: “Mr. Rector the lawyer
is deserving of all the praise which has been
bestowed upon Mr. Rector the man, coupled
with a testimonial to that legal and technical
genius which are so necessary in the branch
of the profession to which his life was
‘devoted.

“His all-around efficiency makes it impos-
sible to stress any series of characteristics
without injustice to others. But I would
mention decision in planning a campaign and
courage in its execution as two particulars in
which I believe he had no equal.

“The legacy of so great a lawyer is not
only the successes won for his clients, how-
ever important they may have been; it is
the example he has set for others of a rise
from obscurity to fame achieved without in-
fluence or wealth with a rigid adherence to
the highest ethics of his profession and uni-
versal courtesies to adversaries as well as
associates.”

Amos C. Miller, the head of the firm of
Miller, Gorham, Wales & Noxon, lawyers,

44 EDWARD RECTOR

in Chicago, tells a revealing story of “big
business.”

“About eleven years ago the Firestone
Tire & Rubber Company became involved
in a patent litigation over a tire-building
machine. It was sued by a competitor in
business. The suit was a vital one to the
Firestone Company, of which I was general
counsel. The loss of the suit would have
meant the loss of millions of dollars to that
company. The patent counsel of the Fire-
stone Company was Charles C. Linthicum,
who was then also general patent counsel of
the United States Steel Corporation. The
case was lost in the trial court in Cleveland,
and the case was appealed to the United
States Court of Appeals sitting in Cincin-
nati. Mr. Linthicum felt the need of help in
the case and recommended the employment
of Mr. Rector as associate counsel. He was
employed, and, in fact, prepared the brief
for the Court of Appeals. The case was a
close one, and having been lost below re-
quired the most skillful handling. I shall
never forget Mr. Rector’s reply to the presi-
dent of the Firestone Company when the
latter said to him that he would like to have

A MASTER AT THE BAR 45

Mr. Rector devote several months to study
and preparation of the case so that he could
be sure that no stone was left unturned. Mr.
Rector replied tersely and decisively that he
would devote to the case whatever time he
thought was necessary to properly prepare
himself, but that he couldn’t devote several
months of time to any case. His attitude
was obviously intended as a rebuke to the
assumption that he would rent out his time
merely because there would be no limit on
the rental.

“Mr. Linthicum died before the oral argu-
ment in the United States Court of Appeals.
Mr. Rector there made the chief argument,
although Mr. Frederick P. Fish of Boston
was associated with him in the argument.
Mr. Cochran of Cincinnati, a lawyer of high
standing and ability, who was for many
years the Clerk of the United States Court
of Appeals, said that he thought that Mr.
Rector’s oral argument in that case was the
most masterly presentation of any case to
which he had ever listened, either in that
court or elsewhere. The case was won for
the Firestone Company.

“Mr. Rector also had charge of another

46 EDWARD RECTOR

litigation for the Firestone Company of
equal importance and of much wider note.
This was the famous case of Perlman Rim
Company vs. the Firestone Company, in
which Perlman undertook to levy tribute on
every demountable rim for automobile wheels
which should be made or used in the United
States. Perlman came very nearly doing
just this. He had succeeded by questionable
means in securing a patent from the United
States Patent Office and had gotten his
patent sustained in a suit which he had filed
against a corporation of Cleveland of excel-
lent standing and $10,000,000 of assets, and
had succeeded in substantially ruining that
company. He then went after the Firestone
Company. In that suit his record was ex-
posed and his suit was lost. It is one of the
famous patent cases in history.”

Drury W. Cooper, of Cooper, Kerr and
Dunham, New York City, out of an ac-
quaintance of thirty years, writes with
warmth and discrimination: “Edward Rec-
tor was at the very top of the most exacting
branch of a profession that demands of its
members rectitude of character, unswerving
fidelity, and precision of intellectual opera-

A MASTER AT THE BAR 47

tions; a profession that imposes a high code
of ethics. He qualified to the utmost in all
these particulars.

“TI cannot think of a better example to
hold before the youth of DePauw Univer-
sity than Mr. Rector’s personality, viewed in
all of its true lights.”’

Silas H. Strawn said to the writer: “If
Rector was an antagonist in a case I have
‘never known a harder fighter; but he always
fought fairly.”

Henry N. Paul, of the firm of Fraley &
Paul, Philadelphia, with ardent friendship
and clear discernment portrays Rector the
lawyer in action: “As an antagonist I found
he always knew the weakest point of my case
and made his attack directly upon it. As a
colleague, I found that he always brushed
aside all side issues and technicalities and
went directly to the main issue. These are
habits of mind which are acquired only by
long trial experience. Courts learn to know
these men and to trust their arguments as
they do not trust those of other lawyers.
This was pre-eminently the case with Rector.
He never tried to fool the Court. And the
Court knew it.

48 EDWARD RECTOR

“He also had the rare faculty of making
an intricate subject clear and simple.

“Another great gift was that he could be
very persistent in enforcing his point with-
out irritating the judge on whom he was
endeavoring to impress his view. Likewise
he could tell a client that his case was a bad
one without the client feeling aggrieved.
What is it in the personality of a man that
confers this ability? I do not know, except
that it is a quality of the heart and not of the
mind. These qualities made him a great
lawyer.”

A leader of the Indiana bar, Henry H.
Hornbrook, strongly characterizes the
breadth of Edward Rector’s professional at-
tainments and his high professional stand-
ards: “He was very much more than a
‘patent’ lawyer, in the sense in which that
word is usually used. While thoroughly fam-
iliar with patent law and with the mechanics
which must accompany efficiency in patent
cases, he had a much broader background and
a far larger appreciation of the law than is’
embodied in patent law. He had a funda-
mental conception of principles which should
apply to and control a given situation and he

A MASTER AT THE BAR 49

was exceedingly keen and adept in applying
those principles to the facts of a given case.
He was resourceful and full of courage. He
did not hesitate to stand for a position which
he felt convinced was right, even though
appearing before an antagonistic Court, who
was impatient in hearing the side of the case
which he was presenting.

“T’o me his most attractive quality as a
lawyer was the lucidity of statement with
which he presented an argument. There was
a rhythm and flow to his words which made
his argument not only attractive to hear but
exceedingly simple and convincing to read.

“He was not a commercial lawyer in any
sense of the word. He never allowed com-
mercialism to enter into his thoughts or
seriously influence or control his judgment.

“His devotion to educational and chari-
table enterprises which so dominated his mind
at times as to lead one to think he had no
other interests were only an evidence of the
breadth of view and the sympathy of mind
which had been developed through many
years of successful practice of law.”

After twenty years’ intimate association
as law partner, Frank Parker Davis, pays

50 EDWARD RECTOR

eloquent tribute to his colleague: “He was
easily the foremost patent lawyer in the
West, and he was known the country over
for his sterling qualities and great ability.
He was conspicuous for straight thinking,
honesty of purpose, directness of method,
and clearness of utterance. . . . It was
not in Mr. Rector’s nature to espouse a cause
or employ his professional talents in aid of
any cause in which he did not believe. He
demanded valid facts to go upon and would
not countenance other than straightforward
dealing with those facts. Misrepresentation
of anything was entirely foreign to his
nature. All knew that on his word reliance
could be placed. I cite an instance, one of
many, in which implicit confidence in him as
an advocate was evidenced. Having fully
informed himself in reference to a claim of
unfair trade practices and prepared papers
in the case, he took these formal documents,
including numerous affidavits, to court seek-
ing drastic action by issuance of a restraining
order, a thing which judges do only when
convinced that extraordinary circumstances
warrant it. He saw Judge Landis in his
chambers, who asked him to state the facts,

A MASTER AT THE BAR 51

and when that had been done, directed the
issuance of the order stating that it was un-
necessary for him to read the papers; it was
enough for him that Mr. Rector had stated
the facts were so and so.”

Judge D. C. Westenhaven, in whose
Court Mr. Rector was pleading at the time
he was stricken with fatal illness, wrote: “I
know no one whom I ranked higher and I
can count on the fingers of one hand the
members of the patent law bar of America
that I should put in the same class. And in
character both as a man and a lawyer, he may
have had equals but certainly no superiors.”

The encomium of Dwight B. Cheever is
equally strong: “Rector was the giant of the
patent law bar. How great he was only
those of us who worked with him and tried
to keep up with can know.”

Frederick P. Fish, dean of the American
Patent Law bar, writing to his friend in his
illness, pens these glowing words: “You have
had such extraordinary success that you
should be willing to rest on your laurels.
You should plan for twenty years of otiwm
cwm dignitate. Do you realize that knowing
you has meant a great deal to me?”

52 EDWARD RECTOR

A noted patent expert in the Kast who has
known all the prominent patent lawyers of
the country for the past forty years wrote at
the death of Edward Rector, “The patent
profession has lost its greatest ornament.”

Such are the judgments of Edward Rec-
tor by his professional peers. From a lay-
man in the law they might be set down to the
bias of friendship or to the enthusiasm of
hero worship. They are the calm, dispassion-
ate estimate of those who knew him best and
admired him most.

What were the chief factors in his success?
What were the elements of his greatness?
The answer is the task of another chapter.

ARD RECTOR

EDW

CHAPTER V
THE MEASURE OF THE MAN

Wuart manner of man was Edward Rec-
tor? In personal appearance he was richly
endowed. His radiant face, kindly but pene-
trating eyes, and noble head singled him out
in any company. His erect, vigorous form,
and energetic gait marked him as a man of
dignity and high-minded purpose. His
faultless dress and immaculate appearance
combined with good taste and gracious man-
ners were the insignia of a true gentleman.
His cheery voice and spontaneous laughter
were the natural response of his merry soul,
The straightness with which he looked into
your eye and the directness of his speech
revealed the openness and the seriousness of.
his nature. His mind was so keen and fer-
tile, his talents so rich and varied, and his
manners so winsome that he was a most en-
gaging personality.

There were certain notable qualities in his
make-up by which all the world knew him.

53

54 EDWARD RECTOR

They were the chief factors in his extraor-
dinary success.

First of all, he was natively endowed with
an eager, productive mind. By studious
habits and exacting self-discipline he de-
veloped a mental keenness and comprehen-
siveness that made him masterful. While he
was denied the completion of his academic
training he acquired the power of intense
concentration and unusual clarity in his
thinking. He became a master in lucid,
forceful speech. His letters, briefs, and oral
arguments were models of clear, convincing,
and persuasive utterance. He possessed the
faculty of penetrating insight and of seizing
upon the essential issues in every problem.
His mind was constantly being enriched by
wide and fruitful reading. On his table was
always found a careful selection of latest
books on travel, biography, politics, science,
and religion. The accuracy of his knowl-
edge in technical matters and the wide range
of his information in the general field of
human culture were simply amazing. To his
mental vigor and comprehensiveness there
was added poise or balance of mind. He pos-
sessed rare common sense. He had no fads

MEASURE OF THE MAN _ 55

or wild fancies. He was never the victim
of popular illusions. His intellectual pro-
cesses were utterly dependable. Judged by
every test, mental acumen, vigor and fertil-
ity of thought, breadth of learning and sound
judgment, Edward Rector was a great man.

His intellectual straightforwardness col-
ored the whole fabric of his soul. His nature
was in revolt in the presence of sham or
hypocrisy of any kind. On one occasion the
discussion of a business meeting in which he
sat took a sentimental turn. The proposed
action ignored facts and appealed to the
sympathies of the group. Rector sat in
frozen silence. His silence was a vigorous
protest against what he called “pious bluff.”

The friends of Edward Rector will never
forget the unmeasured severity with which
he denounced a popular American statesman
at the height of his fame for his apparent
intellectual dishonesty. This political idol
by specious arguments tried to convince him-
self and the people that his measures were
sound and then advocated them with great
moral earnestness. This in the mind of Ree-
tor was an unpardonable sin. One day he
was speaking with another of the World

56 EDWARD RECTOR

War in bitter denunciation of the popular
slogans for its support. With biting sar-
casm he concluded: “So far as I can see only
two good things have come out of this war.
One is national prohibition; the other is the
word ‘camouflage.’ Both will be very use-
ful.”

Closely akin to his habit of straight-for-
ward, honest thinking were his decisive, in-
tense convictions. When his mind was con-
vinced his will was imperative. He knew
no compromise. One side or the other must
surrender. And he seldom surrendered. I
have never known a more dominating per-
sonality. He dominated every enterprise in
which he engaged. Otherwise he soon lost
interest in it. But his domination was not
that of autocratic assumption or bigoted
self-assertion. It was the rightful rule of
reasoned conviction and of unselfish purpose.
His determination knew no barriers. He
laughed at difficulties. His iron will cried,
“There are no Alps,” as he moved steadily
and irresistibly forward toward his goal. _

When engaged in a hotly contested case
to which he was giving all his energies in
response to my solicitude as to the outcome

MEASURE OF THE MAN _ 37

he would say—shaking his head—‘“The cause
of justice is having a hard time.” Or when
victorious he would answer exultingly, “The
cause of justice prevailed.” This, with him
was meaningful pleasantry. His client’s
case was for him the cause of justice. And
all the energies of his masterful nature were
marshaled for its support. It was the decis-
iveness and intensity of his convictions which
made him at once a relentless foe and a
powerful advocate. In the pursuance of a
course which he believed wise and right he
was stern and uncompromising, “warmed
by the divine fire of Duty” and never torn by
divided loyalties.

But the most distinctive trait in the char-
acter of Edward Rector was his human pas-
sion. His interest in men and women was
the absorbing and transfiguring purpose of
his life. Mention has been made in earlier
pages of his humanness which brought him as
a youth into close contacts with all sorts of
folks and of his genius for friendship. There
was something, however, in his nature far
deeper than a mere fondness for people.
There was a genuine personal interest in
their welfare, in their problems of educa-

58 EDWARD RECTOR

tion, livelihood, success, and misfortune.
All the wealth of his manifold powers
was pouring itself forth instinctively and
ceaselessly into other lives. From _ the
partner at his side to the office boy,
from the servants in the house to the wealthy
clients, college students and teachers, all
alike were the objects of his intelligent, self-
giving interest. He was helping young men
to secure positions, opening the door of
opportunity in education or in work to
aspiring youth, making his clients, cause his
own so genuinely that business was trans-
fused and transfigured by a real friendship.
His “one increasing purpose”—to serve
humanity is emblazoned in helpful deeds
across his whole life. It was his passionate
love for people which fused all his powers
into a character of singular charm and whole-
someness. He sought and won the highest
personal and professional attainments, and
then to the lowly and the lofty alike in the
spirit of our great Prototype, he said, “I am
among you as one that serves.”

As a citizen Mr. Rector had breadth of
interest and true public spirit, thoroughly
patriotic but never a political partisan, gen-

MEASURE OF THE MAN _59

uinely informed concerning public affairs
and with measureless contempt for the demi-
gogue and the jingoist. He was so absorbed
in the work of his profession that he did not
allow himself to be diverted by trivial inter-
ests. Every worthy civic and social enter-
prise found in him a loyal supporter. He
promoted generously the benevolences of
Saint James’ Methodist Episcopal Church,
of which he was a trustee. His many private
benevolences were little known even to his
closest friends. The minister of a prominent
church wrote of him: “During my long pas-
torate in Chicago he went out of his way to
cheer and encourage me in what he so well
understood of the delicate and important
work of a minister. With a loving generos-
ity he met wisely and well the responsibilities
of wealth.” He had no sympathy with sec-
tarian narrowness or with religious bigotry.
He revered God, loved men, and cared for
noble causes. These, then, are the four fun-
damental powers driving forward the soul
of Edward Rector—vigor of mind, intellect-
ual integrity, decisive convictions, and pas-
sion for humanity.

And out of their driving energy springs

60 EDWARD RECTOR

his unflagging industry. From his youth to
the day he was stricken he was a tireless
worker.. After he became wealthy he knew
no ease. He drove himself with merciless
vigor. When he traveled books and briefs
were always at hand. Golf and occasional
automobile trips were his only diversions.
He seldom had a vacation or traveled for
pleasure. When most other men are think-
ing of leisure and retirement he was driving
himself at an inhuman speed. At the pin-
nacle of his profession, having accumulated
great wealth, he continued to work with all
the eagerness of a young man of energy and
of bounding ambition.

Why his indefatigable industry? Not for
the money; he did not prize wealth for its
power or fame. Work had become the
natural expression of his matchless energies.
With Rector work was the inner compulsion
of his pent-up soul. By ceaseless, cheerful
and creative toil he was ever saying, “I must
work the works of him that sent me.” Hard
work was to Edward Rector not a toll im-
posed upon him by society for a livelihood.
It was his joy, his gospel, his reward.

Then, too, he felt the obligation to use his

MEASURE OF THE MAN 61

gifts to the maximum of their power. So-
ciety needed the service that he could give.
By: his efforts “the cause of justice pre-
vailed.” Honest business was to be stabil-
ized, productive industries were to be pro-
moted, personal and corporate interests were
to be secured, the rights of property and of
personality were to be safeguarded. For the
sake of these he worked and worked and
worked until the end.

To see Edward Rector at work was to dis-
cover two other factors in his prodigious
success—his simplicity and frugality. His
income the first year in Chicago was ten
thousand dollars; his total personal expendi-
tures for clothing, incidentals, etc., did not
exceed fifty dollars. After he accumulated
wealth he continued the simple frugal habits
of his earlier years. Never parsimonious, he
was never extravagant or ostentatious in his
living. In the home, in hotels, and in travel,
his living was always modest and frugal.
With him economy was not a habit imposed
upon him by the necessities of his youth. It
was a principle that dominated his whole
career—every power of wealth or of person-
ality must be held for its highest use. And

62 EDWARD RECTOR

so work and wealth in his hands became true
servants of humanity. .

The crowning virtue of Mr. Rector’s per-
sonality was an illusive quality, or perhaps
a combination of qualities which I have
called high tone. Judge Anderson char-
acterized him as a “thoroughly wholesome
person.” I think of Edward Rector as an
example of “that rarest product and final
flower of civilization—a true gentleman.”
His fearless courage and good _breed-
ing were not outward manners, but were
the very essence of the inner man. They
were the outward and visible signs of a
genuine consideration for others. He was
“to the manner born,” with all the instincts
and graces of one of nature’s noblemen. His
inner life was transparent. In a long and
intimate intercourse I never heard from his
lips an obscene or irreverent word. His per-
sonal habits were free from selfish and
noxious indulgences. From his youth he cul-
tivated refined and ennobling companion-
ships. His taste in music, art, and literature
revealed the fine quality of his soul. He was
incapable of a mean or ignoble act—high-
minded, but simple and unaffected as.a child;

MEASURE OF THE MAN 638

boyish in his enthusiasm but always clothed
with a noble dignity; overflowing with kind-
ness but never sentimental; patient and self-
controlled but under just provocation flam-
ing with fiery indignation; full of idealism
but with his feet always on the ground; de-
vout but with no touch of religiosity. He
took whole-souled delight in the joy and
success of others. His uncalculating devo-
tion to the best things and to the best people
fused all the superb qualities of his soul in a
personality of lofty tone and true nobility.
An intimate acquaintance of thirty-five
years declared “if any criticism could be
made of Mr. Rector, it would be that he had
so few of the ordinary human faults.” Ina
small circle of intimates I was wont to speak
of him as “the prince.” In his use of
privilege and power, in spirit and in deed, he
was truly princely. This the epitome of his
life, and the final measure of the man:
“Whatever is true, whatever wins respect,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovable, whatever is of good repute—if
there is any virtue or anything deemed
worthy of praise” —he cherished the thought

of these things.

CHAPTER VI
HIS HOME AND FRIENDS

Ir is an indelicate thing for a biographer
to invade the sanctity of the home and draw
aside the veil which hides the closest inti-
macies of life from the gaze of the crowd.
But the portrait of Edward Rector would be
incomplete without a glimpse of his home.
To see him in this enchanted circle is to know
him at his best. With his life companion,
Lucy Rowland, at his side, surrounded by
his friends, his face was radiant, his wits
sparkled, his good humor was contagious, his
companionship was a delight.

In 1893, one year after he located in Chi-
cago, he was married to Miss Lucy Row-
land, of Cincinnati. Their marriage had
been long delayed by her sense of obligation
to her sister’s dependent children. From its
foundation their home was “an ideal and idyl
of our American homes.”

Mrs. Rector was born of Welsh parentage
and was a woman of singular sweetness of

64

MRS. EDWARD RECTOR

th

HIS HOME AND FRIENDS 65

temperament, breadth of sympathy, strong
mind, and firm character. From the begin-
ning she shared the aspirations and entered
inspiringly into all of the plans of her hus-
band. She was justly proud of his splendid
abilities and worthy achievements. By her
devotion to the loftiest womanly ideals and
by her wise counsels the service she rendered
in his distinguished career is incalculable.
She created an ideal home—a woman’s
loftiest achievement.

The spirit and magnitude of Edward Rec-
tor’s benevolence would not have been pos-
sible had Mrs. Rector not co-operated
sympathetically in all his plans. When his
first large gift to DePauw was made public
a visitor said to Mrs. Rector, ““Your husband
has done a great thing for the University.”
She modestly replied, “I may have to take in
washing, but we will see it through.” She
walked with him every step of the way in his
great philanthropic enterprises, cheering his
heart and sharing his labors—and now
heroically carrying them forward.

There was between Mr. and Mrs. Rector
an intellectual comradeship, a oneness of
purpose, and an equality of social exchange

66 EDWARD RECTOR

which made their home life ideal. Denied
the blessing of children, their companionship
became increasingly tender and enriching.
Neither of them was completely happy im
the absence of the other. Each so fully
respected the individuality of the other that
their differences in temperament became
mutually complemental.

Enter the home. You are in an atmos-
phere of culture and refinement. It is a
place of modest luxury and simple elegance.
The pictures on the walls whether original
paintings or copies of the masters have been
selected with rare taste. The books on the
shelves are not bound tomes for ornament.
With every comfort and convenience for
human need there is no ostentatious display
of household furnishings or decorations. It
is not a place to eat and sleep; it is not a
miniature clubhouse; it is areal home. Such
homes are the hope and the glory of Ameri-
can civilization.

The Rectors cultivated and magnified the
joys of their own home. Mr. Rector found
his social pleasures not in clubs and lodges
but in his home. His pleasure in favorite
dishes, in the niceties of the table decorations,

HIS HOME AND FRIENDS 67

and in the amenities of a genteel household
was unconcealed.

The hospitality of the Rector home is an
unforgettable experience. Every guest felt
the glowing friendship and the radiant good
cheer the moment he crossed the threshold.
The warmth of friendly welcome, the touch
of personal interest, the meticulous care
which anticipated every want betokened
genuine hospitality.

Birthdays and other anniversaries were
celebrated in the Rector home with the zest
of childhood. No boy of seven took more
delight in birthday gifts, messages, and
parties than did Mr. Rector. Christmas was
the red-letter day of the year. With his own
hands he wrapped and addressed hundreds
of Christmas packages. Two weeks before
Christmas his office looked like Santa Claus’
headquarters. His gifts had an individual-
ity all their own. He never gave or received
gifts of jewelry. Personal decoration
seemed to him to be a badge of the super-
ficial or a mark of display foreign to his
whole nature. Simplicity and genuineness
were the charm of all his social intercourse.

In a social group Mr. Rector was natural

68 EDWARD RECTOR

and graceful in demeanor, always alert and
refreshing; in conversation versatile and
vivacious; brilliant in repartee, felicitous in
speech, in turn playful and serious in mood.
He never assumed the réle of a self-ap-
pointed entertainer. He never monopolized
conversation. I never knew a better listener.
He listened so intently that he seemed to be
giving himself utterly. A frequent quick
turn of the head, and the gleam in his pierc-
ing eyes were the tokens of his kindling
heart. And when he spoke he poured forth
his soul with charming candor and directness.

In the choice and cultivation of his friends
the utter candor of Edward Rector was
resplendent. His likes and dislikes were
positive and intense. In a social company to
the inquiry, “Do you know that man?” he
replied, “No; and I do not want to know
him. To look at him is enough!” He never
allowed devotion to friends to hide their
faults. His love was never blind. He was
drawn by an unfailing instinct for true worth
to the good and the true. He held their
friendship with hooks of steel.

In his personal contacts Edward Rector
revealed the unique element in his make-up

HIS HOME AND FRIENDS 69

—his genius for friendship. It was also the
largest factor in his brilliant success. He
had an insatiable craving for friends. He
gave himself—his thought, his sympathy, his
effort—with utter self-abandon to others.
They responded by lavishing upon him ad-
miration, confidence, and affection. His
clients were soon converted into friends. But
his dealings with them were always so just
and candid that there was never any conflict
in this double relationship. ‘The members
and employees of his firm looked upon him
not so much as chief but as friend.

What nobler tribute than these soulful
words from an office employee?—“To have
known Mr. Rector was to have loved him,
and to have known him as intimately as we
in the office were privileged to know him was
to have adored him—both of which I did. I
shall always consider that to have spent
seven years working with and for him was
one of the rarest and finest things life has
held for me. He exemplified everything
noble and fine, and I shall always think of
him as truly godlike.” THis firm associates
with unmeasured devotion wrote at his
death; “First in our esteem and admiration;

70 EDWARD RECTOR ,

dauntless always; in all worthy things ‘our
chief.’ But more than these—we loved him.”
A professional colleague of more than a score
of years declared, “I have never known a
man who commanded both my love and ad-
miration as did Mr. Rector, or one whose
friendship I prized so much.” He drew
young people to him by the irresistible charm
of his personality and his true friendliness.
The hearts of hundreds of college youth to
whom his philanthropy opened the door of
opportunity are laid bare in the words of one
of them: “What is there about a man like
Edward Rector that so gets hold of you that
you never quite lose consciousness of it?
Sometimes it seems to me that the only thing
in life which counts is personal relationship
—the imponderable something of which love
and friendship are made.”

These spontaneous outpourings are the
voice of a great multitude whose hearts cry
out, “Friend, all hail! All hail!” On thou-
sands of human tablets more enduring than
granite is writ his epitaph—“Our Friend.”

CHAPTER VII

HIS INVESTMENTS IN HUMAN-
ITY

THERE is no more thrilling chapter in the
annals of American history than the story
of educational philanthropy. For the last
fifty years education has been the chief
interest of the American people. In almost
every commonwealth of the nation a State
university has been established and is sup-
ported by public taxation. Nearly every
religious denomination of the country main-
tains colleges and universities by private
endowment. The General Education Board
of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie
Foundation and other great educational cor-
porations have been established during the
last quarter of the century for the advance-
ment of higher learning. The huge fortunes
being devoted to the cause of higher educa-
tion, hundreds of thousands of American
youth every year crowding these institutions,
the sacrifices which are being made by poor

ay

72 EDWARD RECTOR

young men and women to secure an educa-
tion are tokens of the extraordinary interest
of the American people in the things of the
mind.

The phenomenal progress made by the
United States in the development of natural
resources and in the increase of wealth has
been largely due to the advancement of the
physical sciences. ‘The mechanical inven-
tions and the development of great industrial
enterprises are the fruitage of the labo-
ratory. The huge personal fortunes which
have been accumulated in America in the
last twenty-five years would have been im-
possible but for the work of the scientist and
the scholar. 'The contribution which has been
made by scientific progress to the alleviation
of human suffering and to the advancement
of humane enterprises and humanitarian
movements would have been impossible but
for the colleges and universities of the land.
In view of these facts it is not strange that
men of wealth have seen the opportunity and
have felt the obligation of strengthening the
institutions of higher learning.

The name of Edward Rector holds a high
place in the record of educational philan-

INVESTMENTS 73

thropy in America, not alone for the magni-
tude of his gifts but even more because of
their exceptional spirit and unique plan.
“He gave to higher education the largest
amount ever given to an institution of learn-
ing in the history of Indiana; and he gave
the largest amount ever given by a single
individual to a college of liberal arts in all the
records of the Methodist Episcopal Church.”
It is a significant fact that Mr. Rector’s
interest in higher education developed dur-
ing the last twelve years of his life.

He was introduced to DePauw Univer-
sity, the chief object of his educational bene-
factions, by Roy O. West, an alumnus of the
institution and a member of the Board of
Trustees. His first gift to the college was
the modest sum of fifteen hundred dollars
toward the Bowman Memorial Building.
Regarding his gifts not merely as benevo-
lences but as investments in the service of
humanity, he soon sought further informa-
tion concerning the college. He inquired
concerning the physical plant, the personnel
of the faculty, the general character of the
students, the Board of ‘Trustees and the
alumni of the institution with as much care

74 EDWARD RECTOR

and thoroughness as he would use in investi-
gating the standing of a business enterprise
in which he was asked to invest. The result
-of his inquiries he expressed in these words
addressed to the president: “I am amazed at
the amount and the quality of the work of
DePauw University with its limited equip-
ment and meager resources.” He was even
more strongly impressed by the simple
standards of living on the campus and the
modest expenses of securing a college educa-
tion. The fact that forty per cent of the
students were working their way through
college, that many of them were entirely
dependent upon their own resources and that
the democratic atmosphere of the campus
made _ self-support entirely respectable
deeply moved Mr. Rector.

He heard the thrilling and romantic story
of Senator James A. Harlan, of Iowa, one
of the earliest graduates of DePauw with
eager interest. He told the story again and
again as being finely typical of the demo-
cratic spirit of the institution which has pre-
vailed from its earliest days.

The story is one of the lovely romances of
college life. Young Harlan entered the

INVESTMENTS 75

Freshman class of 1839, having tramped
from Missouri to Greencastle, Indiana, with
a pack on his back, without money but deter-
mined to get an education. Finding the
difficulties of self-support greater than he
anticipated, he became discouraged and gave
up. He had no sooner started on his return
tramping trip home than some of his friends
reported to President Simpson (later a
bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church)
that young Harlan had left. The. Presi-
dent at once set out to overtake him and per-
suade him to return. He succeeded. He
found a job as janitor for Harlan which he
held during his four years’ college course.
His earnings enabled him to graduate. At
his Commencement his college chum named
Gooding from Greenfield, Indiana, was
visited by his sister and her chum who had
a millinery store in Greenfield and was
popularly and affectionately known among
her friends as “The Little Milliner.” ‘The
next chapter in the story can be easily
imagined, as it has been repeated a thousand
times since on the college campus—the col-
lege janitor and the Little Milliner met, fell
in love and in due course of time were

76 EDWARD RECTOR

married. Young Gooding found his future
home in California. He did not meet his col-
lege chum Harlan for thirty years. When
they next met Gooding was on his way to
Europe and stopped in Washington. The
college janitor of DePauw was then United
States Senator from Iowa. He gave Good-
ing a letter of introduction to his son-in-law
—the husband of the daughter of the college
janitor and Little Milliner—who was then
ambassador of the United States at the
Court of Saint James’s, Robert T. Lincoln,
the son of the great president.

Another notable instance of the DePauw
campus made a profound impression upon
Mr. Rector. Early in the seventies a young
man graduated at DePauw and went soon
after as a missionary to Japan. In 1877 he
sent four young Japanese students to De-
Pauw. None of them had any money beyond
the amount necessary for the trip from
Japan to America. They rented the
cheapest quarters available and “kept bach”
during the four years they were in college.
They graduated with honors in the class of
eighty-one. After a few years two of the
four died. Thirty years later Chinda re-

INVESTMENTS 77

turned to America as ambassador of the
imperial government of Japan to the United
States. After several years of distinguished
service he was transferred to London to the
Court of St. James’s. He was succeeded at
Washington by his old classmate and
brother-in-law, Sato. Chinda remained at
London for several years, later headed the
peace delegation of Japan at the Conference
at Versailles at the close of the Great War,
and for several years has served the empire
as personal adviser to the Prince Regent and
now to the Emperor.

Finding the hardy heroic spirit of the
early days still living in the students of the
present day, Mr. Rector’s interest was
greatly quickened. He heard the story of
the struggles of young men now on the cam-
pus determined to get an education engaging
in all sorts of manual labor, waiting on tables
in restaurants and hotels, stoking furnaces,
keeping books, running linotype machines,
selling, from house to house, kitchen utensils
or insurance, pressing clothes, assisting as
janitors. He was both amused and fascin-
ated by the story of one youth who brought
with him from his country home eighteen

78 EDWARD RECTOR

stands of bees which were placed in the back-
yard of the home where he was rooming. He
was fond of saying by the help of the “bees’
knees” the young man got through college.
Mr. Rector’s interest in students supporting
themselves in college was quickened by his
poignant recollections of his own disappoint-
ment forty years earlier in not being able to
go to college. He once said, “I always after-
ward had a notion that if I were ever able I
would like to help some fellows go to college
who were in the fix I was in at that time.”
The memory of his own early disappoint-
ment, his insatiable thirst for knowledge
through the intervening years, and the vision
of the opportunity of helping young men
and women of ability and ambition inspired
his first substantial gift to higher education.

He established the student’s aid fund
which was to be disbursed in the form of
small loans to deserving students. The stu-
dents to whom loans were made were allowed
to fix their own time of payment, giving their
notes at a small rate of interest. The prin-
cipal and interest being paid provided a
revolving and self-perpetuating permanent
fund for the assistance of worthy students.

INVESTMENTS 79

The donor provided that no restrictions
should be attached to the use of the fund
other than personal merit and promise. The
loans were made available for every worthy
student regardless of “race, color, or pre-
vious condition of servitude,” regardless,
also, of religious beliefs, connections or lack
of them.
_ Shortly after the establishment of the stu-
dent aid fund Mr. Rector made his first visit
to DePauw University. He inspected the
plant, became acquainted with members
of the faculty and met the students with
keen personal interest. His interest was
greatly intensified by learning that his father
was a member of the Board of Trustees in
1867 to 1869, at which time women students
were first admitted to the institution. He
took great satisfaction in the fact that his
father was an ardent believer in the higher
education of women and as a member of the
corporation vigorously supported their ad-
mission to the college. He felt strongly the
appeal of family sentiment, his lifetime long-
ings, and the challenge of a great need.
Later he became a member of the Board
of Trustees, whose meetings he always at-

80 EDWARD RECTOR

tended and in whose business his wise coun-
sels were invaluable. He was always open-
minded and considerate of the judgment of
others. He never made his gifts the means
of forwarding his own measures. He never
sought to force his own views upon the body.
He stood stanchly for loyalty to the institu-
tion and for true academic freedom. Any
attempt to prejudice the work of a teacher
on account of differences in political views or
theological beliefs he regarded as moral
intimidation. I have never known a man
who had more genuine respect for the rights
of others.

It was in May, 1916. He was spending a
few days with Mrs. Rector at Saratoga
Springs, New York. In the course of an
entire evening with the president of the col-
lege he asked, “What are the immediate
needs for the best development of De-
Pauw?” ‘The president replied, “The three
most urgent needs are student housing facil-
ities, adequate endowment, and provision for
free scholarships for the promotion of higher
scholastic standards.” Before the conversa-
tion ended Mr. Rector stated that he had
decided to give at once one hundred thousand

TIVH WOLOAY

INVESTMENTS 81

dollars to the university to be used as might
be later determined. After full considera-
tion he decided to build a hall of residence
for women students. as a memorial to his
father, Isaac Rector. To this initial gift of
one hundred thousand dollars he later added
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars more
for the construction, equipment, and com-
plete furnishing of the splendid hall of resi-
dence known as Rector Hall.

From the time the architect’s plans were
submitted until the dedication of the build-
ing Mr. Rector devoted time and study
without stint to this new enterprise. With
his characteristic thoroughness he visited and
inspected scores of student dormitories,
scrutinizing with scientific accuracy every
detail of the building plans, frequently
visited the campus during the process of con-
struction, participated in the selection of
furnishings with as much interest as if he
were building and outfitting his own home.
He put himself into every brick and stone
of Rector Hall, so that in the most literal
sense it was a living monument to his revered
father. The details in construction and in
equipment upon which he insisted with per-

82 EDWARD RECTOR

sistence were not so much the expression of
his own taste as of his enthusiastic interest in
making the best possible provision for the
service of the students. He soon came to
know large numbers of the students person-
ally. His interest in the new building was
like that of a father in providing a beautiful
home for his own children. Whenever I
note the symmetry and completeness of Rec-
tor Hall I am reminded that this noble build-
ing stands for Edward Rector. It is notably
true of this building as of everything he did
—the work is the man.

Shortly after the building of Rector Hall
Mr. Rector was to see partially fulfilled his
second dream for DePauw University—its
adequate endowment. He joined enthusi-
astically with the trustees of the institution
to raise a million dollars for permanent
endowment. He made the leading gift
toward this enterprise. By personal appeals,
by letters, and in public addresses he poured
his burning energies into this campaign, and
none rejoiced more than he over its success-
ful completion. His ingenuity and persis-
tence in these financial enterprises were
captivating. One day when in his office he

INVESTMENTS 83

smilingly handed to the writer a letter just
received from a prominent business firm for
whom he had lately closed a successful litiga-
tion. With the check for his professional
services there was inclosed an extra check,
and there was added this postscript: “You
have done wonders with our suit. We owe
you much more than the fee sent herein. We
know that you will not consent to receive
more than the amount agreed upon in our
contract. But we are enclosing an extra
check of two thousand dollars with instruc-
tions that you send it to your Greencastle
Pet.” With beaming delight he passed the
check into the hands of the college president.

After he had won a long and hotly con-
tested suit in litigation for the Firestone Tire
and Rubber Company involving many mil-
lions of dollars, following the payment of his
fee, he received a letter from the president
of the company in appreciation of his suc-
cess, inclosing a check of $5,000 as a friendly
gift. Mr. Rector graciously acknowledged
the proffered gift, returning the check with
the statement that his services had been duly
rewarded. He then added, “I do not need
the money; but there is a poor college at

84 EDWARD RECTOR

Greencastle, Indiana, in which I am greatly
interested, whose president never refuses
any gift.” It is needless to add, the wander-
ing check did not receive a second refusal.

On one occasion a stranger to Mr. Rector
was introduced. He inquired of Mr. Rec-
tor: “What is your business?” His prompt
reply was, “My business is DePauw Uni-
versity, and I practice law as an avocation to
pay expenses.” For the last decade of his
life that statement was literally true. The
institution became his primary interest. His
great talents were devoted unsparingly to its
service. Its officers, faculty, and students
became his cherished friends. Its gala days
and anniversaries were fixed dates in his
crowded calendar. His business friends
East and West heard the story of his invest-
ments and shared his joy.

An instance in point: Mr. Joseph H.
Boyer, for many years president of the Bur-
roughs Adding Machine Company, who had
seen that enterprise grow from a small
beginning into one of the great industrial
corporations of the country, was a longtime
acquaintance and friend of Mr. Rector. For
many years Rector was the chief counsel

INVESTMENTS 85

and a director in his company. When called
upon for a gift to DePauw University Mr.
Boyer tersely answered: “I am not particu-
larly interested in colleges. But what does
my friend Edward Rector think? I have
perfect confidence in his judgment.”

The visitor promptly replied, “I have
come at Mr. Rector’s suggestion to say that
he would like to see you give fifty thousand
dollars to DePauw.”

“Well, then,” rejoined Mr. Boyer, “before
New Year’s Day I’ll send you fifty thou-
sand in United States gold bonds.”

And so everywhere, Edward Rector’s
“major passion” for the institution of his
adoption was being transmuted into gold
and into human interest and loyalty far more
valuable than gold. It was the rapture with
which he gave himself with his wealth that
was the crowning glory of his great benefac-
tions.

Mr. Rector’s greatest venture in educa-
tional philanthropy was the Rector Scholar-
ship Foundation. ‘This Foundation was
established not primarily as a benevolence
for the benefit of poor students but for the
promotion of high scholarship. In common

86 EDWARD RECTOR

with all friends of higher education he was
greatly concerned over the popularity of the
“sideshows” on the campus—the numerous
“college activities” and the apathy of large
numbers toward the “main-tent” perform-
ance—hard study. After long thought and
careful counsel he developed the plan for
the establishment of four hundred perpetual
scholarships in DePauw University, at least
one hundred to be awarded every year. The
scholarships were to be awarded solely on the
basis of personal merit—scholarship and
character. The first or second-honor men
graduates of the Commissioned High
Schools of the State of Indiana were eligible
as applicants. No candidate for a scholar-
ship would be considered who did not rank
in the first ten per cent of his graduating
class. Later the privileges of the scholar-
ships were extended to selected schools in
other States, including also a few in foreign
countries. Ten per cent of the scholarship
students now come from other States, from
Vermont to New Mexico, and from China
to South America.

The scholarship provides free fees to the
holder during the four years course—a

INVESTMENTS 87

money equivalent of approximately eight
hundred dollars. In addition, the Founda-
tion has a Loan Fund from which needy stu-
dents may borrow not to exceed one hundred
dollars a year, payable at a low rate of
interest at the convenience of the student. In
the awarding of the scholarships while the
qualification is one of scholarship and char-
acter, rather than need, it happens that the
majority of those who take high-school and
preparatory-school honors are boys of small
means. At one time more than half of the
Rector Scholarship students then in college
testified that they would not be able to be in
college but for the help of the scholarship.

In addition to the scholarships offered to
high-school graduates of high standing
others are offered to a limited number of the
Freshman class each year of exceptionally
high academic rank. One exception was
made to the general plan providing scholar-
ships for men only. A scholarship is offered
without restriction as to sex to the student
taking highest honors in each of the four col-
lege classes. Many of these honors have
been won by the young women.

What has been the result of this educa-

88 EDWARD RECTOR

tional experiment, altogether unique in plan
and in scope among American colleges?

By the testimony of all qualified to speak
the plan has fully justified the faith and the
magnanimity of the founder. The secretary
of the Board of Control, Dr. Henry B.
Longden, writes: “After an experience of
eight years there is very clear evidence that
the Scholarship Foundation has not only
fulfilled all legitimate hopes and expecta-
tions as to the encouragement of scholarship
in the high schools, but it has exerted a most
salutary influence on the scholarship of the
campus. It has furnished a constant incen- |
tive to ambitious students to do superior
work in the high schools. Best of all it has
enabled many boys, with practically no
means, to secure an education.

On the campus it has increased the num-
ber of men so that in each year’s graduating
class the number of men exceeds the women
by more than half a hundred. It has also
stabilized and steadied the student life, since
the Rector Scholars are under special obli-
gations of loyalty and obedience. It has

markedly raised the grade of scholarship. In
1917-18, before the organization of the

INVESTMENTS 89

Foundation, the average number of credit
points for all students for the year was 20.5.
In the college year 1924-25 the average was
47.4. In 1918 there were five graduates cum
laude in a class of 86; while in 1925 in a class
of 244 there were 104 graduates cwm laude.
It has also greatly increased the number of
students taking graduate work. From a
graduating class of 244, 109 entered grad-
uate schools.”

In short, in eight years of operation the
Rector Scholarship Foundation has been the
most potent factor in raising the level of
scholarship in the college over one hundred
per cent, in stimulating postgraduate study
far beyond the average record of most
American colleges. On one college campus
it is making scholarship respectable!

A recent graduate of the university with
just pride writes: “The five hundred Rector
Scholars hold a conspicuous place in every
phase of student life. To-day their spirit
completely dominates the college. These
men have become a veritable leaven which
has worked its way through the entire stu-
dent body. The academic atmosphere
cleared of apathy and pride in mediocrity,

90 EDWARD RECTOR

scholarship is now in the ascendency among
all students and is rapidly becoming the
primary job of college life, is becoming to
many the joy and inspiration which it has
been to the few. It is creating a tradition
favoring scholarship.”

But what is far more important than the
promotion of academic excellence was the
spirit which Edward Rector breathed into
this enterprise. He so invested it with his
own personal interest and stimulated the
scholarship students with his ideals and
example that they were impressed with an
obligation to vindicate in after life the faith
and wisdom of their benefactor. Immedi-
ately after the scholarships for the year were
awarded, Mr. Rector sent a personal letter
to the hundred or more young men who had
received the honor. When he visited the
campus an informal reception was invariably
held in which he and Mrs. Rector met and
personally greeted every Rector student.
He learned their names and the towns from
which they had come. He became familiar
with the personal circumstances of many.
They were affectionately called “Our Boys.”

The crowning distinction of Mr. Rector’s

INVESTMENTS 91

philanthropy is that it was personal, in-
tensely personal, and not institutional. He
entered into the struggles of the boys, re-
joiced in their successes and suffered in their
griefs with the affection of a father for his
children. He writes to a friend concerning
the sudden death of one of them: “I have
most distressing news—a telegram announc-
-ing the death by drowning of one of the most
brilliant and promising of our scholarship
alumni, John P. St. John, of the class of ’24.
I was especially fond and proud of him, and
his untimely death is a real tragedy to me.”
With the manifold interests engaging his
attention the wealth of his personal devotion
to the students was amazing.

On the walls of the Rector home there is
hung a map of Indiana. A pin with a
colored glass head is stuck in every town
from which Rector scholars come. The map
is now literally covered with pins. Already
more than one thousand two hundred Rector
Scholars have entered the college through
his great benefaction, and have seen a vision
of the life which is life indeed. One hundred
or more young men disciplined by study,
inspired by noble associations graduating

92 EDWARD RECTOR

every year through the coming centuries and
going to the ends of the earth to devote them-
selves to the upbuilding and redemption of
human society. What a noble procession!

“His was the mind

That planned the finest kind

Of giving,

His was the joy

To shape a thousand lives for living!”

In his own unforgettable words he voiced
the spiritual significance of all this: My in-
vestments in DePauw are not investments
in DePauw University, they are invest-
ments in humanity, in the men and women
who are to carry on the work of our country
when you and I are gone—the Harlans, and
Beveridges, and Chindas of the future. De
Pauw is merely the medium through which
we may make such an investment for the
future, and offers us the opportunity and the
privilege, and a real opportunity and privi-
lege it is. DePauw is a peculiar institution
—the more you do for her the more she does
for you. My indebtedness and obligation to
her were never so great as they are to-day.”

It was profoundly true. Rector made a
great contribution to higher education. And

ALISUGAIND MOAVdAG “ITVH NAGSNOT

OR ERNIE 5S se 8 EO

INVESTMENTS 93

by the law of spiritual reciprocity his own
life had been immeasurably enlarged and
enriched thereby. Through his gifts to the
university he made. a great investment in
humanity. He had so used the riches of
wealth as to make to himself friends who
were already receiving him into everlasting
tabernacles.

A visitor in Saint Paul’s Cathedral asked,
“Where is Sir Christopher Wren’s monu-
ment?”

“Took around you,” answered the guide.

If you ask on the DePauw campus for the
monument of Edward Rector, look around
you. Three splendid halls of student resi-
dence: Rector Hall, a memorial to his father;
the Lucy Rowland Hall, in honor of his
wife; the Henry Boyer Longden Hall, com-
memorating the name of the secretary of the
Rector Scholarship Foundation, who for
forty-five years has been a professor in the
university; a Pension Fund providing a re-
tiring allowance for teachers of long service
in the institution; a permanent endowment
‘of several millions of dollars for the support
of teaching and for the Rector Scholarship

Foundation.

94 EDWARD RECTOR

But you must look for his real monument
beyond the limits of the college campus.
Twelve hundred American youth heading an
unending procession, who through future
years will hear the story, catch the vision,
and follow the example of Edward Rector.
They were truly his “best investment.” ‘They
were also his joy and glory. The crowning
distinction of his career was this—he learned
the secret alchemy of transmuting wealth
into character values. Wealth in his hands
became a servant of the things of the spirit.
Had he simply amassed a great fortune and
bequeathed it to his kin in fifty years his
record would occupy scarcely an inch of a
page in American history. Giving with his
fortune himself to the service of humanity,
he has won perpetual fame.

In the city of Cleveland, July, 1925,
Kdward Rector was stricken with a sudden
attack of illness from which he died in his
home in Chicago, August 1. Hundreds of
telegrams and letters of sympathy and trib-
ute poured into the home for weeks after-
ward. The funeral and memorial services
held in Chicago and at DePauw University
were notable demonstrations of genuine

INVESTMENTS 95

grief for the loss of a great and good man,
who was great in all his goodness and good in
all his greatness. His life had ever made
greatness honorable and goodness attractive.
Therefore a multitude in tears justly called
his name blessed.

“I have written unto you, young men,
- because you are strong,” that you may recon-
struct in your day the triumph which this
man created out of his life. What a man can
attain through ability and industry, through
intellectual honesty and _ high purpose,
through unselfish devotion and will, he
attained. To the ardent youth of America
of ability and courage Edward Rector is an
enthralling example.

—_ sae

CT Grose, George Richmond, bp., 1869-1953.

215 Edward Rector; a story of the middle West,
R34 by George Richmond Grose ... New York, Cin-
G7 cinnati, The Abingdon press [c1928]

95p. front., plates, ports. 20cm.

1. Rector, Edward, 1863-1925.

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